Loading...
Date
2019
Abstract
The horse industry in Ireland is renowned globally and is estimated to be worth approximately €2 billion per annum to the Irish economy. While Ireland excels in horse production the quality of forages fed to horses over the winter and throughout the grazing season is largely unknown. Forages are an essential component of the horse’s diet and the NRC guidelines recommend a minimum forage intake of 1% of body weight for a healthy equine digestive system. From an owner’s perspective it is critical that the nutritive quality of these forages are optimised to ensure continued health and well-being for their horses. An understanding of the nutritional variation that is naturally occurring in forages will help owners strive to ensure a quality product for their horses. Forage samples of hay and haylage, representing the harvest period 2009 to 2014 were collected. The majority of the samples were produced in Ireland (73%) with the remaining samples produced in the UK (18%) and Canada (9%). Nutritional analysis was conducted on all samples in accordance with AOAC procedures and included: DM, moisture, ash, crude protein, NDF, ADF, ADL, GE and estimated DE. The distribution of moisture content in forages varied significantly according to country of production: Hay; Ireland 13.6% (10.9%, 16.4%), UK 12.3% (10.6%, 14.4%), Canada 10.0 (9.0%, 11.2%) (P 15%). The data generated has been used to monitor nutrient variations and to help establish normal and ranging values.
Supervisor
Younge, Bridget A.
Description
peer-reviewed
Publisher
Citation
Collections
Files
ULRR Identifiers
Funding code
Funding Information
Irish Research Council (IRC), Irish Equine Centre